Duration of siesta break?

[nivlekx]

Can anyone enlighten me on the recommended duration of a siesta break?

[juggler]

Perhaps you can search for the term "siesta" in this forum. There were several discussions in the past.

Personnally, I prefer an unbroken stretch of lighting period. My tank's lighting period is 10 hours, siesta break of 14 hours. []

Not too sure of other aquarists.

[vinz]

No more then 4 hours. Make sure there is ambient light during the siesta, so the plants won't think it's end of the day and go to sleep.

[PeterGwee]

Whats the point of doing it in the first place? Combat algae? It won't work...go for nutrient control..

[nivlekx]

The main purpose I want do it is so that I can have it at 10 hours and yet get to see my tank in the morning and the night. So that will make it like a 5-6 hr break. So I was wondering if there were any side effects of such a practise. Somehow after I practice using this siesta break, my algae problem seems to have gotten worse. Lotsa hair algae started propagating all over my leaves.

Vinz: As far as ambient light is concerned, my house is pretty dark so there really aint much light getting into the tank when the lights are off when there aint anyone at home.

[juggler]

I see...

Do you have more than 1 set of light? Probably can think of staggering the lighting hours so at least there some lower light levels during the "siesta period".

For me, I don't have time to enjoy the tank in the morning -- rush to work... So my lighting period is from 2pm to 11pm.

[limsc]

Hi,
Me too switch on the lights at 3.30pm to 12.30pm for me to view the tank when i get home. So far no problem yet. **Finger crossed**